The Metamorphosis, The Burrow and Josephine the Singer
John Salinsky in Medicine and Literature, 2018
The story is gripping and totally convincing despite the nightmarish strangeness of the basic idea. If you are still following my medical analogy, it would seem that the patient’s family are totally lacking in empathy for him. Could this happen to a patient with a stroke? At first the idea seems unacceptable. But I think that together with pity and concern when we are confronted with someone who is suddenly transformed and distorted by illness, we may also have to struggle with feelings of fear, irritation, anger and disgust. Why has this person done this to himself? How can he expect me to understand his bizarre speech? Why doesn’t he walk properly? Why does he make such a mess for me to clear up? Can’t he try harder? But that’s just one way of reading the story. On another level, as I have already suggested, it is worth remembering that in Franz Kafka’s own home in Prague (not unlike the flat where the Samsa family live) he felt crushed and bullied by his father, who seemed to treat him like a worthless insect. So what is The Metamorphosis ’really’ about? Is it a piece of disguised autobiography, a metaphor of sickness, a plea for inter-racial (or inter-species) tolerance - or just a story about a man who became a beetle? Possibly all of the above and more besides. Certainly no one who reads this story will ever forget it.
‘Thinking with metaphors in medicine: the state of the art’
Alan Bleakley in Thinking with Metaphors in Medicine, 2017
Arno is a specialist in Type 1 diabetes. The descriptor ‘diabetes’ itself is a metaphor, derived from the Greek diabainein, meaning a ‘siphon’, referring to frequent urination as a key symptom. Following the derivation of ‘metaphor’ from the Greek metaphora – literally to ‘transfer’ – what is more unsettling than the inauguration of a chronic illness such as diabetes? It is the embodiment of metaphor, as the tenor/source of ‘health’ is transferred across to a vehicle/target of ‘illness’ demanding a new imagination of life. As Arno pointed out, it is a metamorphosis. Just as metaphors can be discomfiting, so patients usually do not see the arrival of this bodily shift into illness as an opportunity, but as a threat. The shift is from relative stability into instability, and the doctor’s work, in diagnosis, treatment, management and prognosis, is to help the patient to recover some stability through exploring the ‘life metaphor’ of the illness, or the nature of the shift, again, from the tenor/source (‘health’) to the vehicle/target (‘chronic illness’) that now shapes the patient’s being.
Mosquitoes
Gail Miriam Moraru, Jerome Goddard in The Goddard Guide to Arthropods of Medical Importance, Seventh Edition, 2019
Mosquitoes undergo complete metamorphosis, having egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages (Figure 25.29). Larvae are commonly referred to as wigglers and pupae as tumblers. Larvae and pupae of mosquitoes are always found in water. The water source may be anything from water in discarded automobile tires to water in the axils of plants, to pools, puddles, swamps, and lakes. Mosquito species differ in their breeding habits, biting behavior, flight range, etc.; however, a generalized description of their life cycle is presented here and will serve as a useful basis for understanding mosquito biology and ecology. Most larvae in the subfamily Culicinae hang down just under the water surface by a breathing tube (siphon), whereas anopheline larvae lie horizontally just beneath the water surface supported by small notched organs of the thorax and clusters of float hairs along the abdomen. They have no prominent siphon. Mosquito larvae feed on suspended particles in the water as well as microorganisms. They undergo four molts (each successively larger), the last of which results in the pupal stage. With optimum food and temperature conditions, the time required for larval development can be as short as 7 days.
Concomitant changes in radiation resistance and trehalose levels during life stages of Drosophila melanogaster suggest radio-protective function of trehalose
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2018
Jagdish Gopal Paithankar, Shamprasad Varija Raghu, Rajashekhar K. Patil
Drosophila melanogaster known to have high radiation resistance; therefore, can be used as a model for the radiation related study and it can aid in understanding mechanisms of radiation resistance. Drosophila is a holometabolous insect and it undergoes complete metamorphosis. During metamorphosis organisms are known to undergo rapid tissue formation and organ development. In Drosophila, larval and adult stages differ considerably. It was reported to have variation in radiation resistance at every life stage (Paithankar et al. 2017); therefore, the biochemical changes during pre/post metamorphic stages can help to understand the mechanism of radiation resistance. The factors contribute to different levels of resistance among life stages of D. melanogaster are still unknown. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of radiation resistance can help us to design new radiation protection strategies for humans. Therefore, in the current study, we explored the level of various enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants in all the life stages of D. melanogaster; because antioxidants are known for helping to withstand against oxidative stress. The formation of PC was considered as one of the major factors for radiation sensitivity (Krisko and Radman 2013). Hence, along with antioxidant study, we also examined levels of PC formation in all the life stages of D. melanogaster. To compare the effect of increased age on the levels of PC formation, the levels of protein carbonylation were also studied for adult flies of different age groups.
Effect of lemon grass extract against methyl methanesulfonate-induced toxicity
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2021
Muqtada Ali Khan, Smita Jyoti, Falaq Naz, Gulshan Ara, Mohammad Afzal, Yasir Hasan Siddique
The fruit fly is generally yellow-brown in color, with brick-red eyes and transverse black rings across the abdomen. Males are generally shorter than females and have darker backs. The females of this species lay around 400 eggs, about five at a time. The eggs are about 0.5 mm long and they hatch after 12–15 h (at 25 °C or 77 °F). This developmental period is temperature dependent. The resulting larvae grow for about four days (at 25 °C) while molting twice (into second and third instar larvae), at about 24 and 48 h after hatching. In a short span, the larvae encapsulate themselves in the puparium and undergo a four-day-long metamorphosis (at 25 °C) emerging into adults (Ashburner and Thompson 1978, Ashburner et al.2005). In the present study, a transgenic fly line, i.e. D. melanogaster (hsp70-lacZ) Bg9 expressing bacterial β-galactosidase in response to stress was used (Lis et al.1983). In the aforementioned strain, the transformation vector was inserted with a P-element, i.e. the line contained wild type hsp70 sequence up to lacZ fusion point. Five females and three males of this line were allowed to copulate in order to procure the third instar larvae required for this experiment. The flies and larvae were cultured at 24 ± 1 °C with standard Drosophila food containing agar, corn meal, sugar, and yeast (Nazir et al.2003). The taxonomic position of the insect used in our study is as follows:
A systematic review of the bioprospecting potential of Lonomia spp. (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae)
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2023
Henrique G. Riva, Angela R. Amarillo-S.
Most of the authors used sixth-instar caterpillars (a phase in insect development) in their research (Maranga et al.2003, Souza et al.2005, Mendonça et al.2008, 2009, Vieira et al.2010, Sousa et al.2015), while a few authors did not report the instar of the insects (Fritzen et al.2005, Raffoul et al.2005, Alvarez-Flores et al.2006). No article could be found that investigated other phases of Lonomia development. This could be an interesting topic of further research considering that the metamorphosis process of insects is highly regulated by activation, differentiation and apoptosis in specific tissues. The corresponding signaling molecules probably pass through the hemolymph, which makes this fluid very promising for research related to the use in cell culture (Maranga et al.2003).
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